I thought at this stage of the preparations I would be cleaning and polishing (and loading the gin!) but not so.

Since the last posting on 1 June, Cummins have been twice and fitted new 12volt fuel pumps and when we took Pirate to sea the engines certainly kept going although we do have a fault showing on the screen because the computer is still expecting to find a 24 volt pump somewhere in the circuit. A solution has been planned but today two of the Racor pumps have arrived in Southampton and are due to be fitted on Friday - we leave for Portsmouth on Saturday - nerve-wracking this game!

When we did the sea trial we found that we were not developing the full rpms from the engine and our "propeller guru" Paul Williams from Clements Engineering (www.clementsmarine.co.uk) advised taking 1" out of the pitch. Since we have total faith in his advice this has been done and they are awaiting their return to the boat.

The Raymarine E120 and the video cable have now been repaired/replaced and have been refitted to the boat. Hopefully, it will give no further trouble.

On the plus side we have now obtained some sponsorship from 1stEast, the company who are working to regenerate the port of Lowestoft. One of their projects is actually to re-develop the old Brooke Marine site where Pirate was built 40 years ago and the proposals can be accessed at http://www.1steast.co.uk/development/brooke-peninsula.php Should it come to pass it will certainly revive an area which is much in need of improvement.

Although nothing to do with our present issues we have suffered a failure of a split charge diode. Our friends in Mastervolt have ridden to the rescue once again and new equipment is on it's way from Holland. We really are indebted to them for their prompt assistance and advice and are pleased to carry their logo in a prominent position on the boat.

No doubt the next 24 hours will prove as hectic as the last - watch this space!